1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved mounting structure of a strip-shaped bus bar including an electric connection portion adapted to be connected to an external element such as a female-female terminal to an external element such as a female-female terminal.
2. Related Art
In many cases, an electric connecting apparatus which handles a high voltage within a limited space uses a strip-shaped bus bar which is laid out in an interior thereof for arrangement electric wiring therein, and there is raised as an example thereof an electric junction box for use as an automotive component.
For example, when used in an electric vehicle, this electric junction box is such that a battery, an ignition switch, an inverter and the like (none of which is shown) are provided so as to be wired by way of the electric junction box, whereby a solenoid relay is activated based on an output signal from the ignition switch, so that a main electric power is sent to the inverter while detecting the state of the battery by a voltage sensor (refer to, for example, JP-A-2004-282908 (Page 1, FIG. 1)).
To describe an example of the configuration of an electric junction box like this, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the electric junction box is configured so as to include a lower case z1 having provided therein a recessed portion z2 which accommodates therein a distributing component accommodating portion (not shown) which accommodates therein, in turn, a fuse, a solenoid relay, a voltage sensor or the like and a female-female terminal z3, a bus bar z4 which is laid out in the lower case z1 and whose electric connection portion z5 is projected into the recessed portion z2, a female-female terminal z3 which is fittingly inserted into the recessed portion 2 so as to be electrically connected to the electric connection portion 5 and an upper case z6 which is detachably fitted on the lower case z1, to thereby supply a main electric power to an inverter or the like by means of an ON/OFF operation of an ignition switch.
In addition, to describe in more detail, the bus bar is formed by being blanked out from sheet metal having conductivity such as sheet copper into a batten shape to provide for a desired wiring pattern by a press or the like with a desired portion thereof bent, as required, to provide for an electric connection portion for connection to the female-female terminal. On the other hand, the female-female terminal is made up of a rectangular frame element and an elastic piece wound vertically in an interior of the frame element, so that the electric connection portion is fittingly inserted between the frame element and the elastic piece for establishing an electric continuity.
Incidentally, the electric connection portion of the bas bar is formed by being bent by a press, but when so worked, there may occur a case where the electric connection portion is reversed slightly from the angle at which the portion is bent (elastic deformation), leading to a situation in which the electric connection portion so reversed comes into interference with the female-female terminal when attempting to fitting the female-female terminal on the electric connection portion provided to erect within the recessed portion to thereby result in a problem where the female-female terminal cannot properly be fitted on the electric connection portion. Due to this, bends of electric connection portions were corrected one by one by the hands of assembling workers, but due to a number of bus bars being laid out in the lower case, such correcting work became extremely troublesome work.
Even though the accuracy of the bending work of electric connection portions is enhanced, there occurs a case where an electric connection portion is inclined due to various factors such as an attaching condition of the bus bar to the lower case, the material of the bus bar itself and the like for interference with the female-female terminal, and hence, the enhancement in the accuracy of the bending work cannot constitute a basic solution to the problem.
To cope with this, an object of the invention is to provide a bus bar mounting structure which can automatically correct the bend of the electric connection portion of the bus bar so as to enable the proper connection between the electric connection portion and an external element (for example, the female-female terminal) in a simple construction and in an ensured fashion.